hter. I saw it all. Before
dinner some of the revellers had been told of the new charge against me,
and, by instruction, had kept it till the inflammable moment. Then, when
the why and wherefore of my being at this supper were in the hazard, the
stake, as a wicked jest of Bigot's, was mentioned. I could see the flame
grow inch by inch, fed by the Intendant and Doltaire, whose hateful
final move I was yet to see. For one instant I had a sort of fear, for I
was sure they meant I should not leave the room alive; but anon I felt
a river of fiery anger flow through me, rousing me, making me loathe
the faces of them all. Yet not all, for in one pale face, with dark,
brilliant eyes, I saw the looks of my flower of the world: the colour of
her hair in his, the clearness of the brow, the poise of the head--how
handsome he was!--the light, springing step, like a deer on the sod of
June. I call to mind when I first saw him. He was sitting in a window of
the Manor, just after he had come from Montreal, playing a violin which
had once belonged to De Casson, the famous priest whose athletic power
and sweet spirit endeared him to New France. His fresh cheek was bent
to the brown, delicate wood, and he was playing to his sister the air of
the undying chanson, "Je vais mourir pour ma belle reine." I loved the
look of his face, like that of a young Apollo, open, sweet, and bold,
all his body having the epic strength of life. I wished that I might
have him near me as a comrade, for out of my hard experience I could
teach him much, and out of his youth he could soften my blunt nature, by
comradeship making flexuous the hard and ungenial.

I went on talking to the Intendant, while some of the guests rose and
scattered about the rooms, at tables, to play picquet, the jesting on
our cause and the scorn of myself abating not at all. I would not have
it thought that anything was openly coarse or brutal; it was all by
innuendo, and brow-lifting, and maddening, allusive phrases such as it
is thought fit for gentlefolk to use instead of open charge. There was
insult in a smile, contempt in the turn of a shoulder, challenge in the
flicking of a handkerchief. With great pleasure I could have wrung their
noses one by one, and afterwards have met them tossing sword-points in
the same order. I wonder now that I did not tell them so, for I was ever
hasty; but my brain was clear that night, and I held myself in proper
check, letting each move come from my